Spectral efficiency of dispersion managed solitons: Comparison of 20, 40 and 80 Gbit/s based WDM transmission

Summary form only given. The current methodology of high capacity systems design focuses around the use of many wavelength channels each operating at a relatively low bit rate. However, with the advancements in single channel performance brought by short period dispersion management, it is now feasible to consider the possibility of WDM systems using fewer wavelength channels operating at higher bit rates. Reduction of the number of channels appears attractive for the design of cost effective systems but one must also consider the impact on system performance. With this intention, we investigate the performance of three specific systems using 16/spl times/20 Gbit/s, 8/spl times/40 Gbit/s and 4/spl times/80 Gbit/s WDM transmission.